"This is the seed that can make something special happen," said Mary Keating, an artist who has worked in stained glass and clay and is a member of the new, not-for-profit Winter Garden Arts Association, which will operate the gallery at 127 S. Boyd St. under the artsy name "127 So Bo."

The city will lease the former fire station to the association for $10 a year for three years, giving downtown Winter Garden its first gallery. The 3,000-square-foot firehouse, built in 1938, will serve as a venue for artists to exhibit and sell their works and as a center for art classes and workshops.

The city has pledged about $20,000 for improvements to the old firehouse.

Winter Garden's long-term goal is to establish an "art and design district" that would flank Plant Street, the main street through downtown, and attract artists to live near downtown and set up home studios where they could sell their work, said Tanja Gerhartz, the city's economic development director.

As sketched out, the district would encompass about two dozen blocks, including Winter Garden's downtown and more affordable neighboring streets. The city plans to tweak zoning rules for neighborhoods to allow homes to be used as commercial "creative spaces," she said.

Cultural districts have succeeded as economic-development tools in other U.S. cities, both large and small, said Jason Schupbach, design director for the National Endowment of the Arts, which has awarded $16 million in grants since 2011 to 190 projects that used the arts to shape communities.

Berea, Ky., for instance, a town of less than 15,000, boasts a popular art festival as well as resident furniture artisans, glass workers and weavers.

An art district can be helped by supportive city leaders and accommodating public policies, but they must grow on their own and often depend on a generous benefactor to thrive, said Vicky Dorman, executive director of EGAD!, the Eau Gallie Art District in Melbourne.

"Without endowments, it's hard to make any of it work," said Dorman, who declined to discuss the Eau Gallie district's finances.

Winter Garden wants to add the art gallery to a list of cultural assets that include a thriving farmers market, the Garden Theatre and West Orange Trail.

"The gallery is really, from our point of view, about economic development," said City Manager Mike Bollhoefer, who described the project as an "art incubator" that can improve the quality of life and spur more job growth in Winter Garden. The city, which is enjoying a renaissance that has filled every downtown storefront, is home to 56 creative companies that employ 225 people in design, digital arts and related work, he said.

The Winter Garden gallery is expected to open in November with a show called "Artists on Fire."